Review Date: 11/24/12
Commentary: I received this root beer from a friend who picked it up on a weekend road trip. I can’t remember exactly where he got it, though. I liked the artwork on the label (a drawing of Old Man Chowning, perhaps?) and saw that it was made by Old Dominion. Those two things gave me high hopes for this brew: 1) a nice label that led me to believe some real thought went into its design, and 2) a pedigree of an actual brewery.
When I opened this bottle, it had a significant licorice and
spice aroma. You may have noticed by now that I’m not a huge fan of the
licorice thing, but the spice side of the aroma intrigued me. When poured in the glass it did create a
head, but it was mainly composed of large bubbles and is dissipated really
quickly. By the time I could get a
photo, the head was pretty much gone.
The first sips told me this was not going to be a creamy
brew. The sweetness was there, but it
wasn’t overpowering. The fact that sugar
and honey were on the ingredient list, instead of HFCS, earns it a few
points. I got a few nice spicey drinks
from the glass. Things went downhill
from there.
This root beer had the potential to
develop a nice bite. Unfortunately, it
could not live up to that potential. The
carbonation dissipated way too fast to work with the spices to help produce any
bite. Half-way through the glass, the
aroma had disappeared completely. Once the
carbonation was mostly gone, this one did not have a pleasant taste at all and
left a strong wintergreeny aftertaste.
Sorry folks. I can’t
give this one high marks. I think I’ll
go with…………………….63.
What about you? Have
you tried this one? I understand that
Old Dominion produces a few different root beers under different labels. Have you tried any of Old Dominion’s root
beers?